Russia-Ukraine live updates: Putin puts nuclear forces on high alert; E.U. to restrict airspace

New satellite images taken Sunday show a large convoy of Russian ground troops approaching Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, where forces over the weekend were engaged in a fierce battle for control of the city.

The images, captured by the U.S. firm Maxar Technologies, show a line of Russian military vehicles — stretching for more than three miles — traveling in the direction of Kyiv. At the time the photographs were taken, on Sunday morning, the convoy was northeast of the Ukrainian city of Ivankiv, about 40 miles from the capital.

The convoy includes fuel, logistics and armored vehicles, such as tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and self-propelled artillery, Maxar reported. Separate video circulating on social media Sunday also appeared to show a number of Russian vehicles traveling through Ukraine, though it was unclear whether it was the same convoy as the one seen in the Maxar images.

In D.C., several enthusiastic rallies have been held at the White House and the Ukrainian and Russian embassies over the past several days. On Sunday, there was another, larger gathering at Farragut Square, where at least 100 people waved the Ukrainian flag and sang patriotic songs, according to social media posts.

In live footage from Reuters, one person held a sign that read “STOP NEW HITLER,” and others were holding placards calling for peace and “No War.” During one song, people knelt, held each other’s hands and bowed their heads. “President Biden, the world is watching you!” chanted the crowd at the end of the song.

At one point, Damon Wilson, the president and CEO of the National Endowment for Democracy — which describes itself as an independent foundation dedicated to strengthening democratic institutions around the world — addressed the crowd, urging the “free world” to rally for Ukraine and for a stop to Putin’s aggressions.

“Their success is crucial to democracy’s future. It is crucial to defeating Putinism,” Wilson said. “Only when Putin is out of Ukraine, only when Putin is out of the Kremlin, will our freedom be safe and secure.”

Russia’s largest Internet provider, state-owned Rostelecom, has made key government websites more difficult to access — or hack — from the outside world.

The move comes after days of cyberattacks that have sought to take down Russian government sites, including those for the Russian military. Government spokesman Dmitry Peskov acknowledged Saturday that “attacks are ongoing” on the Kremlin site, causing frequent glitches, according to Russian news service Tass.

The action by Rostelecom makes the section of the Russian Internet that includes government sites harder to access unless a user is inside the country. This adds at least some protection against hacks by outsiders or efforts to shut down sites by overwhelming them with Internet traffic.

“There is no doubt these are defensive moves,” said Doug Madory, director of Internet Analysis for Kentik, which tracks online data flows globally, who tweeted about the action on Sunday.

Russian companies also have used a technology called “geofencing” to protect its government sites from outside users. But these and other measures are far from impossible to defeat. Anyone with a VPN that masks their location could connect with a server in Russia, allowing them to connect to the government sites, Madory said.

On Saturday, Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister and minister of digital transformation, announced on Twitter that he was creating an “IT Army” to attack major Russian government and business websites, directing viewers to a channel on Telegram that by evening local time had more than 90,000 subscribers.

A list of targets posted to the channel included key Russian government and military sites.

The U.N. Security Council passed a procedural resolution Sunday to call a rare emergency special session of the General Assembly. The 193-member body will meet Monday morning to discuss the Russian invasion.

The draft resolution passed with 11 in favor, Russia against and three abstentions — China, India and the United Arab Emirates.

Ten such emergency special sessions have been convened in the past — including for sessions on Afghanistan in 1980, Congo in 1960 and the Israel-Palestinian conflict in 1997.

Because the vote was procedural in nature, the five permanent members — Russia, France, China, Britain and the United States — could not veto the resolution.

“Russia vetoed Friday’s resolution, but, as I have said before, Russia cannot veto our voices, Russia cannot veto the Ukrainian people and Russia cannot veto the U.N. Charter. Russia cannot and will not veto accountability,” said Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Emergency sessions can be considered within 24 hours “if the Security Council, because of lack of unanimity of the permanent members, fails to exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security in any case where there appears to be a threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression,” according to the United Nations.

Two days ago, Russia “single-handedly blocked the adoption” of a Security Council resolution that would have demanded that Moscow end its attacks on Ukraine, said Nicolas de Rivière, permanent representative of France to the United Nations, before the Sunday meeting. China, India and the United Arab Emirates had also abstained Friday.

“This Special Session is a necessary new step intended to defend the U.N. charter and international law, and put an end to the aggressions against Ukraine,” de Rivière said before the vote.

More than 350 civilians have been killed in Russia’s invasion, including 14 children, Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said Sunday.

The ministry also tweeted that 1,684 civilians have been wounded, 116 of them children, as of Sunday. It put the total dead at 352.

Those numbers are a significant increase from totals given Saturday, when Ukrainian Health Minister Viktor Liashko said on social media that a total of 198 Ukrainians had been killed, including three children.

Observers have struggled to independently verify the number of people killed and injured in the fighting. Russia did not acknowledge casualties among its troops until Sunday and even then did not provide specific numbers.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity Sunday to discuss the situation in Ukraine, a U.S. defense official told reporters that Russia’s apparent adoption of “siege” tactics and mounting rocket attacks would increase the chances of harming civilians.

In response to the war in Ukraine, Virginia has joined states across the country in banning Russian-made liquor from state-owned ABC stores — the sole retailer of distilled spirits in the commonwealth.

“We need to take strong actions to support Ukraine, so I am calling on @GovernorVA to order the removal of all Russian Vodka and any other Russian products from our ABC stores immediately,” state Sen. L. Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth) tweeted Saturday morning, adding minutes later that she had been “overwhelmed with texts from my colleagues in support of this idea from both sides of the aisle.”

With the support of Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority soon announced that it was removing seven Russian-sourced vodka brands from its shelves while offering a number of spirits with “Russian-themed monikers,” including Stolichnaya and Smirnoff, that are produced elsewhere.

In Maryland, Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich (D) announced Sunday that the county would join the boycott of Russian-made liquor “in solidarity with the people of Ukraine.”

Across the country, many Americans are desperate to support Ukraine as its people try to fend off a Russian invasion that has left hundreds dead, thousands homeless and millions fearful of what could become of their country in the weeks ahead.

Here’s how you can help.

A Russian defense official confirmed Sunday that Russia has suffered casualties in the fighting in Ukraine.

“Unfortunately, some of our comrades have been killed or injured,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said at a news briefing, according to Interfax, an independent news agency in Russia. Konashenkov had said late last week that no Russian troops were killed in the attack, the Associated Press reported, contradicting statements from authorities in Ukraine.

Konashenkov did not specify how many Russian troops were hurt but said “our losses are many times less than eliminated nationalists, as well as the losses among servicemen of the Ukrainian armed forces,” according to Interfax. He also accused Ukrainian forces of torturing Russian soldiers but did not provide evidence.

International observers have struggled to verify government numbers and get a grasp on the fighting’s toll, even as harrowing images and stories flood social media.

“We don’t have any idea of the full scale of the consequences right now,” Mirella Hodeib, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Kyiv, told The Post. “Only that they’re rising exponentially.”

Civilians are dying in Ukraine. But exactly how many remains a mystery.

Robyn Dixon contributed to this report.